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tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  December 31, 2013 4:00pm-5:01pm PST

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here. from all of us at cnn. a very happy new year to you. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. ♪ next, new years eve. the world ushers in new years eve. we'll take you to parties all around the world. plus the latest from north dakota where a fiery train collision forced town officials to have an evacuation order. and the hosts of msnbc show says she is sorry for comments about mitt romney's black grandson. did her apologies go far enough? good evening. i'm don lemon in for erin
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burnett. hau new years eve. the world bids farewell to 2013. in new york city, we're less than five hours away from the ball drop in times square. we'll take you there shortly. let's look live. this is london where it just struck midnight and the party is underway looking at the fireworks live between the london eye and the queen elizabeth tower.
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>> happy new year london. just an hour ago the skies over berlin lit one the 60's fireworks display over the historic brandenburg gate. and there's dubai, you guessed it, more fireworks but not just any fireworks, a world record display. the first world record of 2014. 400,000 fireworks in six minutes at 400 locations along a 100 kilometer stretch of shoreline. that is hong kong. a pyrotechnic musical was staged
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over victoria harbor. you recognize that bridge. that's the bridge above sydney harbor. also ablaze as fireworks lit up the australian sky. ♪ outside beijing, a colorful light show spanned one of the most colorful sections of the great wall of china and spectators danced and celebrated. but folks in auckland, new zealand, may already be breaking their new years resolutions. they're among the first in the world to ring in 2014. we're going to start our coverage right here in new york city in times square. aisha is out there trying to withstand the next five hours of freezing temperatures to make it to the big ball drop.
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there were flurries earlier. it is freezing out there. what's going on? >> reporter: don, my friend, it is freezing. i'm not going to lie. people are in good spirits here in times square. are you having fun? yay! you can hear it from the folks themselves. they are in good spirits. they've been here since 3:00 today, don. they don't care about the cold. they all wanted to be here to see the famous times square ball drop. and also take in the unique atmosphere that goes on here in times square. this is my fourth year to tom could this event and it never fails to amaze me how people come from far and wide to be part of this. i wanted to introduce to you two very special characters that have come all the way from texas. you might be able to spot them. what's your name and where are you from? >> joe david, from amarillo, texas. >> what about you? >> i'm antonio from amarillo, texas, also. >> explain to our viewers why
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you decided to make the long journey from texas to be here in times square? >> we've never been to new york before. we wanted to see it for the first time and watch the ball drop. >> what about you? there are other places you could have been. >> yeah. i wanted to pick the one place, the most exciting in the entire world for new years and new york is it, no doubt. >> what's the best part about being here in times square? >> i like the size, the big buildings, everything here, the people, it is real nice. usa. the best culture in the worldful? & being here in times square. >> the culture is beautiful. nothing like it. it is entertaining, it is fast pace. >> reporter: and everyone is being nice? >> it's new york. you're going to run into few people. >> reporter: tell us about the coats. everyone wants to know about the outfits. >> they're just, we're just trying to stay warm really. trying to stay warm here.
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it is cold here. i'm not cold. it is real warm. you're all having fun, right? you heard what they said. the coats, they just want to stay warm, they say. >> i am so glad you asked about those coats. if you didn't, i was going to ask you to ask them about it. hey, listen, they may be from texas and a warm place but they know how to dress on a night like tonight. happy new year, my friend. have a great time. i'll see knew 2014. bye, my dear. we'll head off to london where matthew chance is among the local who's just rang in 2014. matthew, happy new year. >> reporter: happy new year to you. i don't know if you can even hear me. the fireworks in central london are so incredibly loud. they're so spectacular. they really excel. very special this year. not just the visual.
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it is a multisensory experience. in the air they're filling in matching fire work with the smells and the flavors of fresh fruitful so the tens of thousands of people that have gathered here to watch this, they can smell it. they're calling it a multisensory fireworks display. i can smell something like bananas. it is all mixed up. it is pretty amazing. >> matthew chance and rightly so being drowned out by the fireworks. another count down to tell but happening in colorado. the state will be the first in the country to allow sale of marijuana for recreational useful sales start first thing tomorrow morning. miguel in garden city, colorado. miguel, what are the expectations for tomorrow?
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>> reporter: well, the expectations are huge. another night, another sea of pot that i'm standing in. we are in the appropriate named garden city. this is nature's herbs and wellness center. they will not be open for recreational marijuana sales tomorrow but they will be soon. eight dozen stores across colorado will be open for retail sales tomorrow. they expect the crowds to be enormous. some of them, crowds lines forming overnight. they expect hundreds of people to go into their stores to purchase marijuana. and police say that they will be on hand as well. keeping track of all of those stores, making sure that everything goes fine them also say if there are spontaneous outbursts of people smoking marijuana tonight at midnight, that it sounds like they're not going to get involved unless they feel like they have to get involved. keep in mind that it is fine to smoke in it private in colorado. they want to keep in it private
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and they don't want people schmoke in public. that is another issue to come here. at the moment, all of the marijuana stores across the state are preparing either to start sales tomorrow or very soon. >> thank you very much. still to come on cnn, more of our coverage of the world's new years eve celebrations. we take you live to celebrations across the country and across the world. that's london you're looking at. plus a new photograph of north korean dictator kim jong-un just released. it is one of the first public images since he had his uncle executed. and a train collision in north dakota. ♪
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♪ maybe i'm wrong ♪ ♪ and nobody ever says goodbye ♪ ♪
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only at one of our 425 stores nationwide, where queen mattresses start at just $699.99. sleep number. comfort individualized. tonight emergency crews are working to clear the massive wreckage in north dakota where two trains crashed and burned yesterday afternoon. one of the trains was carrying crude oil and as you can see in this video, it created huge
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flame and dangerous smoke. the national transportation safety board on the scene investigating the cause of the crash. chris lawrence has the latest now. >> this oil train derail. triggered a massive fire ball. it spewed thick black smoke over families' home. >> it was scary too. you don't know if it will affect the kids. >> reporter: officials evacuated nearly the entire town of casselton as they tested the air. ntsb investigators have arrived on the ground. >> i think our biggest challenge right now is that the fire is still burning. and we're not able to get up close and personal to the wreckage. >> reporter: crashes like this are calling attention to overall rail safety. 79 people died this sum where a passenger train slammed into a concrete wall in spain. and in early december, new york's metro north train derailed. in north dakota some of the rail cars may be the type the ntsb
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has sounded the alarm over. saying they are more vulnerable to being breached in a crash. >> there are different type of d.o.t. 111 cars so we will want to be confirming that. >> reporter: critics say oil company have been slow to upgrade the cars. the kind that derailed in quebec this summer killing 47 people. tank cars can withstand impacts at 18 miles an hour. but some say even prooxtd wouldn't protect them going 60, 70, 80. >> you can't physically build a tank that can withstand that kind of impact speed. >> reporter: gary wolf said trains are far safer than trucks. right now the only alternative to shipping crude oil across the country. >> i don't think the average person wants to be driving next to a 75-mile-an-hour rig carrying crude oil down the highway 12 feet away from your able. >> reporter: certainly not. in the last few hours we learned that emergency responders had
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lifted that evacuation order. now families can go back to their homes. when you peel back the number, they tell a very different story than some of the graphic video we just saw. for example, about five, six years ago there were fewer than 50,000 crude oil shipments a year in the u.s. now that number is up to 400,000. but in that same time frame, the number of accidents has actually dropped about 50%. so more shipments and actually fewer accidents. >> chris lawrence, thank you. happy new year to you. the master of the photo op. new pictures of north korean dictator kim jong-un on a ski lift looking incredibly relaxed and care43. a few weeks ago he had his uncle executed and these there first images we're seeing since that announcement. what are these pictures telling us? gordon chang is here. he is the author of nuclear showdown. north korea takes on the world.
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kim jong-un on a ski lift. is this masking what's really going on inside the country? >> it certainly. is kim jong-un as you point out just had his uncle jang song thaek executed. and he's not the only one. right now you have a purge where officials are being recalled from europe, recalled from asia, going back. they don't know what's going to happen to them them could be executed or serve to the camps with their families. >> look at the pictures. he is in a supermarket in the store. the shelf are stocked. this is a company rolling in money. we hear of food shortages, the desperate plight of average north koreans. is this what they need? a ski resort? >> reporter: they don't need the ski resort or the equestrian clubs or the dolphinarians.
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you have the regime elements. they're doing pretty well. they have all these facilities including this ski resort you showed. but also for your average north korean, many are still on the verge of starvation and it is just a very, very different country. so you've got very wealthy, very poor. >> gordon chang, happy new year to you. >> happy new year, don. still to come, animal rights group peta. plus the host of an msnbc program forced to apologize about comments about mitt romney's grandson. did her apology go far enough? and more headaches for target customers.
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more back lash against seaworld over the documentary black fish. with peta planning a protest during the rose parade. seaworld's float will have them in the ocean. a far cry from the way the movie portrayed them. >> reporter: as the rocket ship explodes -- >> reporter: the rose parade, america's new years day tradition. along with the flowers, the floats and the bands, there will be controversial this year. the target, seaworld. >> i want every family to know the amount of suffering in just one tank at seaworld. >> reporter: rose mccoy is an animal activist. the 12-year-old took it upon herself to hop the barricade at the thanksgiving parade in new york to protest in front of sea world's float. >> when i saw the parade float
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coming and it was a depiction of orcas in their natural habitat, it made me all the more angry. we really were, it was a massive crowd. so i felt like the right thing to do was to get out where it was more visible. so i could be seen. >> reporter: mccoy, i know what other protesters affiliated with peta are already in pasadena, california, ready to protest. >> if sea world will have a presence at this eye could thattic parade, then largest animal rights organization has to have a presence. >> reporter: where the float was being built. and as it makes its way through pasadena on new years day, peta says it will be there as well. all in an effort to make sure seaworld doesn't make up from its pr nightmare that followed the airing of the documentary black fish on cnn in october. >> what change have you seen as far as the efforts that peta has been fighting for because of the
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film "black fish"? >> it really catapulted the issue of animal abuse world wide which has made things a lot easier for us. >> reporter: it looks at the history of killer whales in captivity leading up to the 2010 killing of seaworld trainer dawn brancheau by an orca. peta took out a full page ad in several newspapers to say it takes care of its animal and it no longer takes whales from the wild. several big names like willy nelson and heart have canceled performances at seaworld park since "black fish." some schools have also canceled trips while other children have posted messages on social media saying they will no longer support seaworld until the company changes its ways. peta hopes to change sea world from within. >> we buy enough shares to have a say at shareholder meetings. what we want to see seaworld do,
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what they can and should do, move all the animals in their amusement parks to sea side sanctuaries where the animal will have freedom to swim. >> reporter: and out here along the parade route, you can see it is starting to get busy. they won't tell us exactly how they plan on getting the message out. they said they will be putting out leaflets but the bigger plan to protest, we'll have to wait and see how that hams in the morning. >> stephanie elam, appreciate your reporting. still to come, more of our continuing coverage of new years eve celebrations from across the world. is this times square? i believe it is. look at all the people out there. we'll take you to party all across america. there is the big ball that will drop. we'll go to new orleans, nashville, to key west, we'll go everywhere. so sit right there. plus another countdown. the countdown to pot. legal pot.
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recreational pot. at midnight, colorado becomes the first state to allow it. and 74 people remain stranded off the coast of antarctica tonight. it has been several days. time is running out. well another great thing about all this walking i've been doing is that it's given me time to reflect on some of life's biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any... bars. ah, that's better. it's a beautiful view. i wonder if i can see mt. rushmore from here. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.
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welcome back to the second half of "outfront." more than 2.1 million americans have signed up for obamacare through federal and state exchanges. those are the new number from the administration just today. those numbers are well below the target of 3 million originally set by the obama administration. still we have no idea how many people have actually paid their premiums which could pose a
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problem for those who walk into an emergency room in the new year. if they haven't paid, they will likely not be covered. in antarctica, 74 people remain stranded on a ship in ice six days after sending out a distress signal. the crew has its hope on a ship. it can only happen when the weather clears. treacherous conditions have stalled other efforts to reach the ship. in the meantime xrk that he addition leaders chris tourney says, the leader says dozens of members are doing what they can to speed up their rescue. >> it is the 31st of december at 3:00 p.m. we've just reached they can't reach us so we're preparing the helipad by stomping down on the snow and ice so they can reach us when the weather ill proves. >> those conditions are not expected to get better for at least one more day. fingers crossed. speck more, pay less. that's target.
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again they're having trouble living up to its slogan after confirming to cnn that some customers are having problems using their target gift cards. a spokesman said some gift cards were not fully activated and apologize for the inconvenience. target would not provide a tally of the number affected but insists less than .1% of gift cards sold during the holidays were affected. this come days after target admitted that debit card pin data was stolen in a massive credit card hack that affected 40 million customers. back now to our big celebration tonight. here in new york and all along the east coast, we've got less than four and a half hours to go in 2013. that's in the eastern time zone. let's check in with two of biggest cities in america, the parties there, john is in key west. we're going to get to new orleans in a bit. first to key west. let me guess. i have to tell you i go to key west every memorial day weekend.
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right? let me see. you're near deval street and sushi is the big attraction. >> reporter: yep. oh, yeah, no question about it. if you haven't been a part of this, the viewers out there of this celebration every year in key west, you need to make sure you watch tonight. if you look up there, there is a red stilletto. in that red stilletto in a couple hours will be sushi. the queen of all drag queens down here in key west. one of the many celebrations they have down here every new years eve. there's sushi, there's the conch drive, there's even a margarita glass. you have to watch this. this is a blast down here. i want to bring in the mayor of all of the florida keys, right? mayor. sylvia murphy. and mayor, all right. this is 20 seconds, your shameless plug after what i just said about how spectacular it is down here.
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>> absolutely. it is more spectacular than you know because we're here 364 days that you're not here. and it is wonderful every single day. >> i'm here a lot more than that, mayor. >> are you! >> okay. the florida keys are great. >> reporter: this is just one of the many, many great events you have down here. what is this? >> well, we have a choice. we can present this to you or we can hit you with it. and we decided to present it. >> reporter: what is it? >> it is a conch certificate. >> reporter: i am what? an honorary member of, what is it? >> this makes you one of us. >> reporter: wow! that's huge. the only question i have is what took you so long? i've been doing this 11 years down here. and now you choose on the 11th year. >> it is given to people who do something to make monroe county
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a better place and you've been doing it for more than ten years. >> do i appreciate it. >> that's a big deal. an honorary conch. it doesn't get any better than that. >> reporter: i was going to ask the mayor -- does that honorary conch, does that come with any perks? do i get like free parking? >> no! >> tell the mayor to meet me at alexander's for memorial day weekend. >> reporter: i'll do that. >> happy new year, my friend. miss brooke baldwin down in new orleans. and are you there? just a little bit. >> reporter: i am, don lemon. i'm on new orleans time. >> where are you hanging out? are you in the corridor. >> reporter: not yet. we're in jackson square.
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pinch my arm, twist my arm. send me to new orleans for new years eve for the second year in a row. we just set the scene for you. the big show is at 9:00 eastern. behind me, the party will begin with a bunch of bands. it is a little, kind of ickey weatherwise but i've been here a whole week. knowing new orleans, they'll come out to party. this is sucre. awning thing about king cake. >> absolutely. i get a king cake every mardi gras. and i get one for the first time for the holidays. i got the baby on the first try. >> reporter: so here's the baby. the baby is in the center. you have the baby. and will you just explain? i was tweeting a lot this afternoon about king cakes. and people were like you're early, you're early. a few days early. i'm all about the sweet 365 days a year but in new orleans, when
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does it officially begin? >> officially kings day is the sixth of january. so in six days, six and a half days from now is the first time it will be consumed. and it marks the epiphany. >> reporter: it marks the epiphany. explain to people who are not familiar with the baby tradition. this baby is hidden somewhere in the cake. >> the baby, it used to be a bean that was baked into the cake. and whoever found the bean in the cake would have luck for the year and it would be a blessing and as tradition has evolved through the years interesting commercialism, shall we say of king cakes, and the festivities, if you find a baby -- >> reporter: you have to buy the next king cake. that's how it works. the party here, we'll be eating a lot of this later. on join us tonight and everyone else, starting at 9:00 eastern. you will see kathy, anderson in times square. we'll hold down the fort here in new orleans and then they'll
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toss it to me. we're here atop the jackson brewery. 1:00 eastern, midnight in new orleans as they say. >> let the good times roll. hey, brooke, good luck getting around in the quarter. it is tough tonight. it will be tough. >> reporter: call me about it. >> happy new year, to you. the countdown to legal pot is on in colorado. when the clock strikes midnight, not everyone in the state will be looking to light up. some town fighting back. who is rejecting the budding pot business? miguel marquez with the story. >> reporter: when you think of colorado, you think skiing, charming western towns and now of course legal recreational pot. no surprise, not everyone is thrilled. >> so marijuana is coming to colorado. what does greeley think about that? >> the voters turned it down when they had an tunnel to vote on it.
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>> reporter: it is still legal to possess it here but you can't buy it here at all. greeley survives on farming, ranching and oil just north of denver, the biggest town in weld county. >> what is the concern? >> we're a guinea pig. colorado and the state of washington are guinea pigs. >> reporter: it starts in washington in 2014. theers can, increased crime know more pot use by kids and uncertainty about whether the federal government will change its tune. >> i still think until the federal government decides to solve this issue, states like colorado and washington out on their own are out on a limb. >> reporter: weld county may have said no but there's a tiny holdout. garden city, only a few blocks big, expects recreational pot to be huge. >> what is it like to be the only place in weld county where this is allowed? >> it is, i guess i'm lucky. >> reporter: lucky to be one of
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four pot shops here. he expects to triple his bit next year won't sell recreational pot for a few months yet but the customers are already there. >> how big is this? >> really big. we're averaging 50 to 75 phone call a day from people out of state wanting to know if we'll be toward sell recreational tomorrow. >> reporter: and this is a family business. dad and mom both in their 70s. trimming pot. they first told their son he was crazy. then they changed. >> he's my son. and i'll do anything for him. so he needed help and here we are. >> reporter: but it is not just weld county wrestling with the potification of colorado, ski areas, often a tradition of lighting up on the lifts, are turning a blind eye anymore. >> if i'm caught smoking pot on a chair lift, will my pass be yanked? >> i think there's a high likelihood of that. you can come to colorado and expect a family friendly
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atmosphere. you go expect safe slopes and you can expect to have your ski vacation here and not be smelling marijuana smoke or seeing consumption and use in public spots. >> there is a little irony here. colorado legalizing marijuana sales but they're also down on using it in public. what gives? >> reporter: this is the very big next fight here. this stuff here in garden city. how will it be used privately? will it only be in houses? will they allow in it private restaurants? private clubs that open up? other sorts of facilities that open up in colorado. at the moment, it is no. but that is something that everybody is going to go for into this new experiment that colorado starts tomorrow. everybody watching very carefully. and in future days and months, those issues will work their way out. >> it will happen in a couple hours. thank you, sir.
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happy new year to you. still to come, an msnbc host apologizing for comments made about mitt romney's grandson. did her apology go far enough? [ female announcer ] what if the next big thing, isn't a thing at all?
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[ female announcer ] ask your doctor about crestor. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. a heart felt apology or just another tweet. we talk about a segment from msnbc that poked fun at mitt romney's family christmas card. focusing on his adopted african-american grandson. take a look. >> everybody loves a baby picture and this was one that really, a lot of people had emotions about this baby picture this year. this is the romney family. >> right. >> and of course there on
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governor romney's knee is his adopted grandson who is an african-american, adopted african-american child, kiran romney. >> the song you hear in the segment is one of these things is not like the others. one of these things just isn't the same. today, well, the host, melissa harris perry apologized on twitter saying i am sorry. without reservation or qualification. i apologize to the romney family. #mhp apology. does her apology go far enough? a cnn political contributor, and we talk about it last night. and then michael is a conservative talk show host. happy new year in advance, by the way. i'm going to start with you. is an apology over twitter sincere enough? >> i find it cheap. i find it cheesy.
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can you really say something poignant and heartfelt in 140 characters or less? i say you had the resources of nbc news. i'm pretty sure you could get the romneys' number, pick up a phone, attempt to apologize verbally. doing it by twitter and particularly with #mhp apology. it is like you're sponsoring an apology. >> hash thing was a little weird but that's what people to on twitter. how do you know that she did not reach out to the romney family? >> we haven't heard anything that would indicate that as of now. >> maybe she would say i've reached out to them personally. you say this is overblown. she tries to put this into context. as black child born into large white mo mormon family, i had familiarity with romney family pic and never meant to suggest otherwise. >> contrary to what he said, it
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wasn't 140 characters. she sent out about six tweets which is about the length of any normal public apology. >> 720 carings. >> that's about the length, if you saw how many sentences, it is about the same as any sort of public apology from a public figure. it wasn't as if she sent a want 40 character apology. context always matters. i think it does. knowing that she was born into a largely white family, knowing that she has a white mother, those things would have been relevant and mitigating factors. i already knew that. i understood the context and that's why i was very comfortable saying yesterday, i don't believe her intention was mean-spirited. not that she was attempting to make fun of a baby. it was about making fun of mitt romney. whether we like the segment or not, there is a difference between making a stupid yoke and being mean. and i don't think it was the later. >> how can you not -- >> go ahead. >> how can you not think it is the latter? it was an attempt to be mean. here's the question that i would
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ask. mitt romney has been blessed with 18 grandchildren. what if he had left out his one black adopted grandchild. then he would have been ripped and criticize asked rightly so. but here is somebody actually representing exactly what we want from america. don't we? to look beyond race and to have bonds of love. there are so many interracial families right now. why would she even focus on this and ask for a caption? i mean, it was a terrible mistake. and i'll tell what you she could have done. it's new years eve. come out and say my new years resolution for next year is when criticizing politicians or even mocking politicians, to focus on the political candidate, the person himself, the public figure and leave children and wives out of it. which is a good rule for conservatives, liberals and everybody in between. >> mark, i want to get back to something that you talk about. you said that you did not think it was big deal.
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so she could not have apologized. yet the person who did it thinks it is a big deal. she apologized. she said, i just apologize. she didn't have a caveat about it. you're still defending her. >> i think you're mixing apples and oranges. what i think melissa said, she said i apologize. sometime when you offend or hurt people, that's all that matters. whether my intention was one thing or another is immaterial. ultimately did you hurt someone. and she's saying i clearly hurt someone. >> what do you think her intention was? >> let me finish the thought though. this is really important. my point was, speaking to melissa's intent, not whether or not people were offend or whether or not it was appropriate. >> ho do you know her intend? >> well, for one, i saw the context of the segment. for two, i know melissa. and for three she said it today.
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>> what's the context? i need to understand. is that it white folks can only -- is that it white folks can only adopt white babies and black folks can only adopt black babies? that seems to be what the message was. >> i think the intent was things that cause controversy. and there was this photograph she said created a stir. that was sort of the context of it. and she was providing captions. >> that's all it was. this whole argument has been going around. i've been hearing it all day. that somehow someone is saying black people should not be documented by white people. i'm happy mitt romney has opened his arms and his family adopted a black baby. no one is saying anything about race with regard to adoption. this was a stupid joke and an opportunity to poke fun at the lack of diversity in the republican party. >> white people have been adopting black children since, i believe there's a show called different strokes in the '70s. >> that was a television show. >> i get it. >> it was the number one show.
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>> please don't talk over each other. it's disrespectful to the viewer. >> finish your thought. >> it was a top five show. clearly why this suddenly would stir emotions for the romneys to adopt a black child, i don't get it. frankly we should be applauding the romneys for getting past skin color and saying we will give this kid a good home. they should be applauded and not ridicules. no one said this is irresponsible and i don't agree with this. all four were in echo chamber. >> get in there. >> if you are going to run this photograph at all and during a segment where you are making fun of things, what is it she was trying to mock? what was the point of the photograph? that mitt romney has a beautiful family? why is that appropriate in any
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context? if people did this to the president of the united states and made fun of his daughters which conservatives have pretty much not done, it would be outrageous and she is right to apologize. she should have apologized in person and on air and called the romneys. >> that's a very good point to each of you. why even bring up the picture? what is so unusual and odd about a white family adopting a black baby. it happens to be mitt romney. i appreciated her apology and i think it was heart felt, but i'm not her. when someone said i apologize if i hurt someone, she just said i'm sorry. it takes a big person to do this. do you disagree? >> it's the new year. a happy time. sure. we agree. happy new year, everybody. >> thank you, happy new year.
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>> after "good morning america's" robin roberts i talked about the importance of coming out on the show and the reaction was unbelievable like the reaction on the previous segment. i would like to read some of the responses we received. here's what lois clark jillette said. thank you for the eloquent comments on how wrong it is to use religion as a mask of bigotry. we heard from john who wrote this. two thumbs up for airing this advice. brian tweeted don lemon, as long as you are happy, that's great. didn't realize how people could be gay until my brother came out and now i understand. it wasn't just twitter. a friend katherine said i'm sure it helped more people than you will ever know. xo to you, katherine and enjoy your time off.
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notally grew. debbie on facebook wrote this. not necessary. heterosexual people don't announce they are straight. to that i say not true. straight people talk about their families, their husbands and wives and girlfriends and boyfriends and children all the time. they talk about their weddings and family vacations and display photos of it on their desks at work and on and on and on. straight people declare heterosexuality every day in a myriad of ways and should continue. this is america and there is room for everyone to be proud of who they are. that brings me to my favorite response. a tweet said don, i love you. said in my best mom voice. you are my gave anchor and the last few minutes of out front tonight prove why. that was my favorite. that meant the world to me because telling my mother was the toughest thing i ever did.
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everything after that was cake. i hope you are watching and best of health to you in the new year. happy new year, everyone. still to come, more highlights from new year's celebrations from around the world. we're aig. and we're here. to help secure retirements and protect financial futures. to help communities recover and rebuild. for companies going from garage to global. on the ground, in the air, even into space. we repaid every dollar america lent us. and gave america back a profit. we're here to keep our promises. to help you realize a better tomorrow. from the families of aig, happy holidays.
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♪ maybe i'm wrong ♪ ♪ and nobody ever says goodbye ♪ ♪
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hours from i brand-new year and before we end the show, i want to check in with one more party city. having fun and it's all about the music. hank williams jr. will perform and i met new friends including 10-year-old josie.
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this guy behind me, the truck driver. they are having fun here tonight. this is a song we always hear on new year's eve. but i don't know if anyone knows all of the words. is there anyone there who can help us there? >> i'm going to turn to kitty from kentucky. >> should auld acquaintance be forgot, nanananana! >> perfect! you did it wonderfully. >> is it about new friends or old friends. >> do you other than the words and i sang the words.
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>> sheri, do you know the words? auld lang sign? >> almost. >> no, i just mumble along. >> why not? >> what about you? do you know? you know, but you usually have to sing that song when you have a couple of cocktails in you. >> exactly. and you think you know it. i will pass it along. >> have a great time and be and happy new year to you and your family.
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i want to tell our viewers to help watch the countdown here on cnn. new year's eve live and it starts at 9:00 eastern eastern live from time square. all the best and the worst, a look back at 2013 starts now. happy new year! >> from scandals to chaos. >> we fumbled on this health care law. >> from a call that went zoom to a star that went boom. from miley gone mad to canadians gone crazy. >> the stress is largely of my own making. >> for the next hour